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Thank you very much for discussing my question on Crypto and the Miox disinfecting system on the last podcast. I appreciated the additional information.

My daughter sent me this link to a CDC report on killing crypto oocysts with miox.I know you would probably still recommend the filter, but I just want to be sure of all my options.http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/6294/report/0

I'm up to TWIP 13, and I'm learning quite a bit. Got a couple questions:

1. I understand that sickle cell trait affords some resistance to malaria, could you comment on this. I've heard that if you have 2 (genes?) you get the sickle cell disease, but if only 1, just the trait and it's speculated that this evolved for protection against malaria. Is this still the belief?

2. I thought sex evolved to provide an organisim with a faster way to adapt. With sex there are more slightly different members of a species and so allows for faster adaptation in a crisis than would clones.

I'm confused about sex in the single celled parisites. If there's only a single cell, and it makes both males and females, how does this result in more choices. Where do these join up in sexual combinations that are not all from the same "mother" cell. If a cat eats a rat that is infected with Toxoplasma, how did the rat get more than one set of different offspring. Does it have to be infected multiple times by different lines and then meet up in the gut? Or eat multiple infected rats? Ditto for malaria.

Keep em coming, I am still listening even though for a few moments I worried that my flu this year was malaria. Fortunately, no big headache or backache. But I did wonder about whether mosquitos were still dangerous in the "winter" in S. California. How cold does it have to be for them to die. It's been no lower than 45 deg F. at night here in L.A.

Regards, and great job,

Eric

Alan Dove writes:

Vince:

This might be interesting to cover on the next TWiP.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/l-lcv011211.php

-- Alan

Jim writes:

For TWIP in case you didn't see it. How difficult might it be to use this approach to cure/prevent river blindness?

The team found that a bacterium inside the worm acts as a 'disguise' for the parasite, resulting in the immune system reacting to it in an ineffective way. The bacteria protect the worm from the body's natural defences, but once the bacteria are removed with antibiotics, the immune system responds appropriately, releasing cells, called eosinophils, that kill the worm.

Jim writes:

Dick and Vince:

I understand bed bugs can be killed with heat. This article about lice indicates dehydration is the killing mechanism. I wonder if the same applies to bed bugs and the heat just hastens the process. If so, might running several dehumidifiers and a heater in a sealed room be a faster means of ged bug disinfection.